The Snowmelt River (The Three Powers) Read Online Free PDF Page A

two-story Victorian house, built of the same liver-colored bricks as the dairy, and the labyrinth of corrugated iron sheds, surrounded by piles of logs. Padraig’s return to work was announced by the high-pitched scream of an industrial wood saw.
    “Hi!” she said, smiling. “I’m Kate.”
    The youth blinked at her, looking embarrassed. “Hi!” he said. “I’m Mark and this is my sister, Mo.”
    “And that’s Alan.” She waved to where her newfound American friend was lounging against the trunk of the pear tree.
    Alan lifted an arm in greeting.
    “You’re English—over here on vacation?” Kate enquired.
    “We wandered into the woods and got lost. The old man found us and brought us back here.”
    Alan shoved himself off the tree and came to stand next to Kate. “He’s my grandfather, Padraig.”
    “You don’t sound local either. You’re American.”
    “Yeah, I’m American. Padraig is an O’Brien, my mother’s father. Or I should say was—my folks are dead.”
    “Mine too,” Kate added. “We’re both orphans.”
    Mark looked as if he didn’t quite know what to say to that. He exchanged glances with Mo, whose eyes widened. Kate thought she had amazingly beautiful eyes, pearly hazel in color, and nothing like the blue eyes of her brother. They appeared lambent against the bronze tones of her skin.
    “Whu-whu-whu-what you suh-said about being orphans?”
    Kate blinked, taken aback by Mo’s stammer. “It’s true. We’re both orphans. But, well, you know, it was a lot more recent for Alan—only months ago.”
    Mo’s eyes shifted fleetingly to Mark, but they returned to look directly at Kate. Her face was tense, herlook questioning as she added, “Muh-Muh-Mark and I, wuh-wuh-we’re . . . adopted.”
    Alan exclaimed, “What? Like you’re not really brother and sister?”
    “Oh, I can’t believe this,” Kate implored. “Don’t tell me—you’re not saying that you’re orphans too?”
    Mark shrugged. “We think we are. But we don’t really know if we’re orphans or not.”
    “You don’t even know—sure that’s awful,” muttered Kate.
    “We’re used to it.”
    Alan groaned. “I can’t believe this. It’s all getting like too much of a coincidence!”
    For several moments an uncomfortable silence pervaded the company. Then it was Mo who was the first to break the tension, shoving past Mark to peer into the outhouse. Her gaze took in a jumble of old furniture and pieces of outdated woodcutting equipment. The place stank, as if generations of cats had used it for a toilet. “So whuh-whuh-whuh-what are you planning?”
    Alan shoved a clump of brown hair off his brow. “We’re going to make the dairy into a den.”
    Mark and Mo couldn’t fail to notice that, under his bangs, Alan had a red triangular birthmark in the center of his forehead.
    Kate added, “And we could do with some help.”
    Mark seemed to be the last of them to shrug off the tension. Judging from the look on his face, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to spend the rest of the day shifting rubbish.
    Mo appeared to read her brother’s mind. She said, “Cuh-cuh-can’t we help them, Mark? Oh, cuh-cuh-cuh . . . c’mon.”
    Alan nodded up to the ceiling where there was an antiquated electric light fitting. “Looks like we’ve got juice. And there’s an old porcelain sink over there. So we’ve got water too, if maybe just a cold faucet and lead-piped, so definitely not drinkable. This place used to be a real dairy, back whenever. You’ve got to watch the floor because it slopes away to the corner where you see the sink. But hey! We get the junk shifted and we’ve got space for stuff, like maybe a table and chairs and even a phone line.”
    Mark sniffed at the green-stained sink. “You really think you could rig up a connection?”
    “I don’t see why not. There are two separate lines going into the house and the sawmill. All we’ve got to do is to hook up to one of them.”
    “We could set up a